Although text is typically thought of as written or typed words, a text is anything that is intentionally created by someone to convey an idea. So paintings, chalk, graffiti, pictures, music, lyrics, and carvings are also considered text. Because text allows society to convey ideas, it enables advancement. Text allows us to grow and create. Technology is defined as anything that advances a society. I could argue that written text may be the greatest technology ever created.
Although I do feel strongly that written text, which allows us to preserve ideas and pass them along the wider audiences, oral text is also important. Before cultures even had written word, there was oral text. Stories in some cultures have been passed down for centuries. Oral text also allows us to easily identify the speakers motives during each specific speech. Unlike written text, which is written once for a broad audience and then replicated and distributed, oral text is specific to each instance in which the text is told. No two oral texts can ever be exactly identical. Oral texts can also move us in ways written words cannot. Speakers persona and speech structure can persuade audiences to do that which the speaker wants the audiences to do.
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